Funeralium - Deceived Idealism (2013)

   Funeralium debuted with their self-titled album in 2007, and since it seemed like a side project of two members of Ataraxie (Frédéric Patte-Brasseur - guitars, and Jonathan Théry - guitars, vocals), sot surprisingly the music showed plenty of similarities with Ataraxie. And for the complete view, Vincent Buisson (bass) from Mourning Dawn is also mentonable. On the side of the references to both mentioned bands, the self-titled album was like a slower, more desperate version of Ataraxie, though Ataraxie was already quite strong in those features. But a more individual perspective led to further personalized depths, and a more broken tone. It's important to mention that both bands have been strongly influenced by Bethlehem, and this could be sensed in Funeralium's music with similar intensity like in Mourning Dawn. 

   Despite the similarities, a few distinguishing characteristics made Funeralium independent enough, and on their second album, "Deceived Idealism" the band focused more on these. The sound turned heavier, the music more diverse, the level of desperation, and the depressing features even stronger. This diversity is comparable to how both Ataraxie and Mourning Dawn are trying to take out the maximum from each theme and it's variations, and therefore even in case of extended song lengths, monotonous impression is possible to avoid. And more importantly: even though this genre and format isn't easy to go into, the slowly developing and ongoing themes are able to lead the listener with ease. From heavy riffs to gentle melodies, from anxious depths to intense outbreaks. It's a formula that drastically decreases the possibility of failures, but it needs pretty skilled musicians, and of course loads of melancholy and depression. Atmosphere has secondary role, not leading through the whole album, but often represented by blackened themes and sound and sometimes relying on the contrast of noisy heaviness and gentle melodies. It's like a direct connection between black/doom, death/doom and funeral doom, and in fact, the borders between these subgenres getting blurred and seem irrelevant in some way. The production and the sound are all-round high quality. Similar to both Ataraxie and Mourning dawn, Funeralium offers way higher complexity than what should be expected, and this makes "Decieved Idealism" a funeral doom masterpiece.